Chicago Activities – Fall Edition

Well, friends it’s starting to feel like fall more and more everyday. Cooler temperatures, less humidity, Monday night football… Is it too soon to break out the fall decor?

Last night, one of my favorite fall activities started… Outdoor soccer!

What makes fall soccer better than summer league? Well the fact that I can run/sprint around the field without feeling like I’m going to die from the humidity is a good start. You don’t have to worry about getting stung by bees on the field – oh and you can bust out those sweet high school soccer sweatshirts you know you’ve been holding on to for said occasion. They are “vintage” now, so you totally look cool wearing them.

Last night I was a fall cliche if you ever did see one. Soccer game at night (we won!), Monday night football upon my return home with a big bowl of leftover chili and a piece of jalapeño cornbread. All I needed was a pumpkin spice latte (homemade, of course) and I would have completed the fall madness.

There are some really fun fall activities going on around the Chicago-land area that I’m very much looking forward to and you should too:

Beer Festivals

Lions, Tigers and Brews – September 12th

The Chicago Beer Festival – September 13th

Oktoberfest Festivals

Berghoff’s Oktoberfest – September 10th – 12th

Oktoberfest 5k – September 18th

Oktoberfest The Dawson – September 20th

Logan Square Beer Fest – September 20th

Oktoberfest St. Alphonsus – September 26th, 27th and 28th

Fall Movies

Gone Girl

Fury

Interstellar

The Hunger Games – Mocking Jay Part 1

The Drop

Fall Concerts

Riot Fest – September 12th – 14th

The Black Keys & Cage the Elephant – September 27th and 28th

Lily Allen – September 30th

Fall Weddings

We have three!!!!

There is so much more to do… how will we get to all of them!?!  Bust out your flannel, y’all and embrace these fun activities!

Lolla Weekend

Lolla Weekend has come and gone…

Seriously though, I had an amazing experience at Lollapalooza this weekend.  What started out as a semi-stressful morning turned out into a fun-filled, music-packed day.  Going into the weekend, I had nightmares about large crowds, unbearable weather and losing my friends – but none of those became my reality!  I survived.

First off, I don’t think there could have been a more perfect weekend for this festival – Sunny days with temperatures in the mid 70’s.

When we arrived at Grant park the energy was so intense and crazy, I’m fairly certain I walked around with a huge smile on my face looking like a goon.

Once we got our bearings on where all of the stages were and bought a few beers, we headed over to our first concert – Ellie Goulding.  I absolutely love her, but was not too impressed with her show.  I think it was partially because I had a hard time hearing her voice over her bass.  Nevertheless, we had a ton of fun dancing to her songs and screaming the words.

By the time Ellie finished, it was almost 6:00 p.m. and we had some time to kill before we posted up for the next performer.  My friend and I were pretty hungry at this point, so we headed over to ‘Chow Town’ and grabbed some pulled pork sandwiches from the Smoke Daddy tent.

This sandwich hit the spot.

After we ate, we headed back to the Bud Light stage to see Kendrick Lamar perform – he. was. awesome.

I had a lot of fun ‘people watching’ at lolla, especially the people who were in charge of carrying their groups “beacon”.  Beacon meaning, the item (usually a large balloon or sign), that could identify them in the crowds if someone was to be looking for them.  Unfortunately, I was too busy stalking to take any pictures of these magnificent items, but some of my favorites included:

– Honey Boo Boo’s face

–  The Simpson’s characters

– An inflatable monkey who was carrying glow sticks

– A piece sign balloon

After Kendrick, we headed over to the ‘Lakeshore’ stage which was where The Lumineers were playing.

We stayed for a while, but decided to cut out early so we could get prime standing position for the main event.  Mumford & Sons!

They were so amazing live, seriously one of the best concerts I have ever been to , plus I find Marcus to be super dreamy 😉

I will definitely be returning to Lolla in the future.  I had an amazing experience with great friends, and could definitely now see myself dropping over $200 for the 3 day pass.  It is really hard to see every aspect of the festival in just one day!

After a day like that, the majority of Sunday was spent on the couch watching episodes of ‘Orange is the New Black’ on Netflix and planning out my workout’s for the week to get back on track after a crazy weekend.

Cheers to a productive Monday!

Frosting and Fireworks

Hello!

What a BEAUTIFUL day in Chicago to have a birthday!  That’s right… I’m officially 25… 1/4 of the way to 100.

I can also now legally rent a car 😉

The past few days have revolved around a lot of eating, drinking and celebrating.

Wednesday evening, my girlfriends and I headed up to Ravinia to see that Matchbox 20/Goo Goo Dolls concert.  It was awesome!  The concert was a sold out show, so my mother was able to give me her “members only” pass which got me into the venue a half hour earlier than general admission.  This was clutch because there were 7 of us and we needed a larger picnic space!

My friends and I brought lots of goodies including cheese, meats, crackers, a delicious smoked salmon dip (you like that xtina?), Chinese chicken salad, brownies, pasta salad and so much more!  And of course – 4-5 bottles of wine which we much needed.

The concert was the perfect way to kick off the holiday/birthday weekend.  Good times and great friends!

Yesterday was my FAVORITE day of the entire year!  I love the 4th of July more than my birthday!  Every year, all of my family/family friends flock to my parents house to watch the Arlington Heights parade and spend the afternoon eating/drinking and swimming at their pool.

This year, all of my hometown best friends we able to come which I was so thrilled about because it’s really hard to get us all together in one spot.

Actually, we were missing one… shout out to Carly in NYC!!

After the parade was over, we all headed into the backyard where the real party began.  My parents presented a very impressive spread of BBQ pulled chicken, 2 whole smoked turkey and lots of sides that other people brought as well.

So. much. food.

My family from West Virginia is in town and it was so much fun catching up with them and day drinking.  Whenever we all get together, we pretty much spend about 90% of our time just eating and catching up.  Literally – there is always something out to snack on – oh, the Italians.

Around 4:00 p.m., people started to part ways, but not before my mom brought out a monster birthday cake!  No, she did not bake this herself (sorry mom), but it was delicious!

I have never really been a huge cake fan, I’m more of a pie girl, but i do love FROSTING.  This frosting was da bomb!

Once everyone left and it was just my family, I opened all of the presents they got for me.  My family was so generous this year – I loved everything!

My West Virginia/Ohio family got me a Garmin watch, my sister got me an adorable leather purse from Florence, Italy, and my parents got me some cooking items I have been dying to have!

All in all, it was an amazing 4th of July/birthday celebration.  Bailey was exhausted!

How did you spend the 4th of July?

“Little Talks” and Little Bites

Hello, hello!

Yesterday was simply wonderful.  It started off with a simple breakfast of fresh strawberries and Greek yogurt with honey, all natural peanut butter, cinnamon and a cup of coffee.

Perfect way to start the day 🙂

The workday went by rather quickly and my coworker and I made a quick treat run because she had been having a major cake craving all week.

Have you had Magnolia Bakery cupcakes? Their buttercream frosting is heavenly.  My favorite of the ones we got was the Hummingbird cupcake which had banana, pineapple and pecan cake with sweet cream cheese icing topped with toasted pecans.  Um… yum.

After work I headed straight home to get ready for the ‘Of Monsters and Men’ concert at the Aragon.  I knew the food options at the concert were pretty scarce so I whipped up a quick egg wrap (my favorite on-the-go option).

This wrap consisted of 1 whole wheat tortilla, two eggs, sliced avocado, sliced tomato, a sprinkle of shredded cheese and a couple dashes of hot sauce!

After we ate and took Bailey out we headed over to the venue.  If you have never been to the Aragon, I suggest you go at least once.  The ballroom is really unique and if you get there early enough, you can get pretty close to the band.

Brian and I went with some of our friends who scored us free tickets – concert win!

Apparently, Brian doesn’t know how to smile…

Of Monsters and Men were awesome.  I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the acoustics at the Aragon, but where I was standing – I could hear everything perfectly!

My favorite song was when they started shooting fake snow into the crowd.

The drink options at the venue were pretty lame… crappy beer and wine for $7.00 each.  I figured I got more” bang for my buck” with the wine, plus the white wine was chilled and it was HOT in the ballroom once everyone was in there.

Nevertheless, we had a great time with good friends!

On another note: Today is the Chase Corporate Challenge!  Tons of corporate offices in Chicago will be participating in the 3.5 mile race through the loop this evening.  The Corporate Challenge is one of my favorite events of the year because it really promotes workplace wellness and my company has a tent with free food and booze at the end 🙂

I also took off work tomorrow so today is my “Friday”!

Will recap tomorrow… have a great day!